Abstract The phase parameter δ in the Z₃-symmetric (Brannen) parametrization of the charged-lepton masses is experimentally indistinguishable from 2/9 [1–4]. No mechanism deriving this value is known. This short note records three things, without claiming a mechanism. (i) A combinatorial identity: within the 27 ordered triples of cube-root-of-unity phases, the closure condition 1 + ω + ω² = 0 forces both parts of the fraction independently — the numerator 2 as the conjugate pair required for closure, and the denominator 9 = 3×3 as the ordered phase space of that pair — so that 2/9 is reconstructed with both parts forced rather than fitted. The same value arises as a ratio of quadratic Casimirs, C₂(3)/C₂(Sym³ 3) = (4/3)/6, but the integer route carries fewer representation choices. We state plainly that the counting ratio and the mass angle are equal as numbers while no construction mapping one to the other has been found. (ii) A geometric extension of the parametrization in which each component carries its own imaginary direction; the standard complex form is recovered exactly as the aligned slice, pure misalignment generates a gauge-invariant mass term m²(φ) = (3/2)(1 − cos φ), and misalignment can only add mass, so measured masses bound each family’s internal angle and any triple with Q > 2/3 is unrepairable — a built-in falsifier. (iii) A set of pre-registered, dated numerical statements for upcoming neutrino measurements (JUNO and successors, ~2028–30), recorded here before the data exist so that any later agreement is checkable as a forward statement rather than a retrodiction.